Getting Paid On Time

How do you get someone to pay on time? I’m sure that’s a question that all business owners would like to know. Well here’s the secret…Ready for it? K, here it goes to you…wait, I had an itch on my foot. Ok, I’m ready.

The secret to getting someone to pay on time is to 1)stress to them how important it is in order to receive whatever they want from you they need to have the money ready.

That’s it. It’s called quid pro quo. Latin for ‘this for that.’ If you give them what they want ahead of time, then it’s almost pointless to pay you on time, because they already have what they want…WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT!

This just happened to me. I’ve been doing some Customer Service Training for a client and they usually like to pay me a month or two after I finished my training. That sucks ’cause I have bills to pay, but I spent a great deal of my time training. On top of that, I need to work with my other clients and make additional money just to barely scrap by. Talk about being tough on a business owner.

This Sucks

K, It’s 1:02am. I have to be up at 5 ( I hate waking up early). I’m teaching a class in Gresham (that’s about an hour and a half drive from where I live). I don’t like driving, and when I drive I feel very drowsy. It doesn’t help that I’m up at 1:03 in the morning. I miss my Angel though. I can’t sleep ’cause I keep thinking of her.

I wish I had a magic wand that I could use to make things better. I don’t, and all I see as a solution is to work hard until our spirit gives up. But how do some people do it? Some do something that makes them either rich or happier. I just wanna be happy. That’s all, and for some reason, it’s not all there.

But I guess if I knew the answer I’d be sharing it. Is there something we can do to make us happier? Or at least less depressed when you feel the world is going to crumble under your feet?

I Don’t Want To Work!

Making money is just like exercising.

You keep at it and eventually it makes you healthier and happier. The keeping at it part is what sucks. I can’t keep at it. Just like exercise, I start and never finish. With money, I know all the concepts needed to make my business grow. I know the tasks that I need to accomplish to get to where I need to be. But doing them, HA! I’m writing in this damn blog instead of finishing the tasks that I need to finish.

I got a couple websites to finish, some logo designs, I have some articles that I need to finish, haven’t finished my research on my top secret stuff, but I’m writing on my blog and I don’t want to do them.

The truth is that today is too damn hot. Yup, too damn hot. And it’s the same excuse I have today for exercising, it’s just too hot and just moving ever so slightly is enough for me. I need an air conditioned weight room, but memberships are too expensive.

That’s it, I’m gonna go take a nap. Heehee.

I Don’t Hate Money, I Hate Its Concept

I’m pissed today. And I don’t really know why. I think it’s because of money. I hate it, yet we need it for everything. If money weren’t an issue, there would be thousands of relationships restored. That’s the number one reason people split up. The love is there, but no, we are not financially compatible. We hear that a lot.

That’s really sad.

Money is not really the issue. If we think about it, it’s the greed that people place on material things based on everyone’s wants and needs. Take for example, water. We can all go to the river and get it FREE. However, for the sake of convenience someone says, “Hey, I’ll deliver it to you if you give me something in return. What do you say?” We agree so that we won’t have to go get it.” So then someone else invents something to make another convenience, and we exchange something for that convenience.

We created money for these exchanges, just to give something a value. Well, we all got greedy and overpriced all our crap. And these are things we need and want, so we slave ourselves to get the money to pay for these things. And the world says,”Ah, I get it.”

So now we work our asses off to make money. So let’s break it down, our rent costs $1,300, cell phone $100, car $200, food $250, utilities $300, gas $200, other bills $400. That’s $2,750. I only make $1,300 a month. Wow, I’m in deep shit. But somehow I seem to manage. I don’t know how, I just do. I guess money seems to get to me somehow. Chasing money is stupid. I need an effective way to make it. Somehow.

More Money Problems, Less Money

One of the things that piss me off the most is that if you overdraft on your checking account they charge you between $25-37 for that overdraft.  That’s a shitload of money.  I overdrafted on my account $3 about two weeks ago.  Yeah, that sucked.  Talk about making easy money for the bank.  The bank tells you, “come here, I can give you free checking” but in reality they say, “Let me hold your money, but if you touch mine–even a cent–I’ll legally (and literally) take that sock full of quarters you were saving up for retirement.”  Damn, take it!

I’ve heard so many horror stories with overdrafts.  One my friends used to give the bank almost his complete check in overdrafts.  He’d buy $3 or $4 items which would cost him $30 or $40 after overdrafts.  I constantly asked him why he did that and his only response was, “I needed gas,” or the interesting “I felt hungry, I wasn’t going to starve to death.”  I had to save his life.  He worked his butt off all month long just so the bank can take it when he deposited the check.   Modern day slave if you ask me.

I asked him, “can you withdraw more money than you have from the ATM?”
He said, “Why would I want to do that, that’ll make me overdraft?”  (I wanted to slap him right there)
I said, “Isn’t it better to overdraft once and you pull out, say $300?  Use those $300 to get you through the month?”
“Nah, I can’t do that, the bank won’t let me do that,” he said hesitantly.
“Just try it,” I told him.  “Do it right now.”

He really didn’t want to do it, but I told him to just do it to shut me up.  He did it after I basically nagged him about it.  It just really pissed me off that he worked his ass off in a lame ass department store and the bank just sat back and stole his check.

He felt like crap.  He had just overdrafted again; and he blamed it on me (that inconsiderate punk).  That was my fault he overdrafted and he shouldn’t have listened to me.

Well that one overdraft saved his future pay checks.  One overdraft was manageable, but he was making seven, eight, or more overdrafts per month.   After he cashed the following check, he gloated about having some money left over.  He said how his overtime and saving finally paid off.  Right, his coupon clipping really saved him.

So my lesson is this:

People, don’t overdraft.  And if you really have to ’cause you really have no money, well you better make it a good overdraft.  If you really need something worth $3 dollars, but you only have $1 in the bank.  I’ll send you the other two dollars if you promise to send me $30 when you get your next check.  Deal?  I need it, the bank doesn’t.